Nature: Jungle Eagle

Wednesday, April 24 at 8:00 p.m.

Harpy eagles are the most powerful birds of prey in the world. Standing three feet tall, with a six-foot wingspan and razor-sharp talons the size of bear claws, these birds are the heavyweight hunters of the South American rainforest.

They are the top predators in the jungle canopy, feeding regularly on monkeys and sloths. But scientists know very little about harpy eagles because their numbers are few, their habitat is large, they never soar above the trees, and they rarely come to the ground.

Hidden in the branches of the canopy, they are rarely seen, let alone filmed. Nature enters their secret world with wildlife filmmaker Fergus Beeley ("White Falcon, White Wolf") and his team of cameramen as they locate a nest and struggle to document the lives of these elusive birds in Venezuela’s Orinoco River jungle.

The team comes dangerously close to the notoriously aggressive birds, risking serious injury to obtain pictures of the birds in their nest. And the tables turn when one of these massive birds starts following them.